Well, that's one of those classic cases where I'm trying to reinforce my own point (such as it is) rather than listening to the rejoinder. I fully accept that I missed the point.
On a side note, and remembering your long-standing hatred of small talk, I sometimes wonder why I go down the pub at all. (Precisely for the reasons you adumbrate.) Pub conversation in my experience breaks down into four basic categories:
(1) Things that convention suggests one should not talk about in pubs. Broadly, religion, politics, and the law. I can pretty much guarantee that I will be on the obverse side of these arguments, and the results are never pretty for anybody.*
(2) Subjects in which you are an acknowledged expert. I'm a little short on these. Being in possession of a degree in History puts me at something of a disadvantage, because somebody is always coming up with a preposterous theory about the Habsburgs or something. Since footnotes are not generally available in pubs, this case degenerates to (1).
(3) Subjects in which you have a mild interest, but by which the bloke sitting opposite is fascinated. These are wildly diverse. They may include (if you're lucky) cooking; they may involve minority sports (which always devolve to some other minority sport which is somehow more important). These conversations used to be a harmless diversion, but in the age of the internet they now lead to promises to "look it up and get back to you." Given the veracity of the average internet lookup, I think (3) is now actually worse than (2) or (1).
(4) Small talk. Never good. Particularly bad when it comes to the "water cooler" level of TV sitcoms or Eastenders In Space or Sherlock Holmes. The problem with small talk, paradoxically, is that it is precisely during "small talk" that you realise that you have nothing in common with the other person and, in fact, you secretly despise their tastes.
There's not much left but drink. You don't do that any more, and I couldn't do it today because the local pub is run by an idiot and the cellars had flooded for the third month running.
Checked out Heinrich Fraenkel, btw. Excellent man, somewhat wasted on the University of New Mexico as far as I can see. As with quite a lot of interesting people, he's not too well served by the Web.
* If you think that capital punishment is contentious, you should try my local, where nothing short of slow evisceration with red-hot pincers is deemed suitable for child molesters...
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Re: Argument from lack of authority
Date: 2010-08-23 06:38 pm (UTC)On a side note, and remembering your long-standing hatred of small talk, I sometimes wonder why I go down the pub at all. (Precisely for the reasons you adumbrate.) Pub conversation in my experience breaks down into four basic categories:
(1) Things that convention suggests one should not talk about in pubs. Broadly, religion, politics, and the law. I can pretty much guarantee that I will be on the obverse side of these arguments, and the results are never pretty for anybody.*
(2) Subjects in which you are an acknowledged expert. I'm a little short on these. Being in possession of a degree in History puts me at something of a disadvantage, because somebody is always coming up with a preposterous theory about the Habsburgs or something. Since footnotes are not generally available in pubs, this case degenerates to (1).
(3) Subjects in which you have a mild interest, but by which the bloke sitting opposite is fascinated. These are wildly diverse. They may include (if you're lucky) cooking; they may involve minority sports (which always devolve to some other minority sport which is somehow more important). These conversations used to be a harmless diversion, but in the age of the internet they now lead to promises to "look it up and get back to you." Given the veracity of the average internet lookup, I think (3) is now actually worse than (2) or (1).
(4) Small talk. Never good. Particularly bad when it comes to the "water cooler" level of TV sitcoms or Eastenders In Space or Sherlock Holmes. The problem with small talk, paradoxically, is that it is precisely during "small talk" that you realise that you have nothing in common with the other person and, in fact, you secretly despise their tastes.
There's not much left but drink. You don't do that any more, and I couldn't do it today because the local pub is run by an idiot and the cellars had flooded for the third month running.
Checked out Heinrich Fraenkel, btw. Excellent man, somewhat wasted on the University of New Mexico as far as I can see. As with quite a lot of interesting people, he's not too well served by the Web.
* If you think that capital punishment is contentious, you should try my local, where nothing short of slow evisceration with red-hot pincers is deemed suitable for child molesters...